Archive for January, 2015

Yep, it’s true. If you (like me) harbor a raging hatred of Dollar General due to their exorbitant prices, I invite you to join me here on Ninety-Nine Cent Island. Tattoo and Ricardo Montalban are present and accounted for, eager to cater to your every whim.

Crave an eclectic mix of ten dark tales for $0.99? 112,000 words of epic sci-fi for $0.99? Your wish is their command.

Perhaps you’d like to delve into a bit of quirky rom-com, but you fear said rom-com will set you back an entire Washington. No problem here. Simply purchase a copy of The Transience of Youth at Amazon for a mere 99¢. A penny saved is a penny earned, is it not?

Feel lucky? Well, do you? Then go ahead and risk a cent less than a buck on Signal Fire. It’s good. No doubt about that. But will its flaky author finish its sequel before 2015 becomes 2016? Who knows. But at 99¢ a pop, can you really afford to pass this opportunity up?

In summation: Lots of words, few cents. Do with them what you will.

And, as always, thanks to each and every one of my readers.

* — It looks like the new $0.99 prices are live at Amazon in the US, Australia, and Canada. Not so much in the UK. But then it’s kinda late there… Stay tuned, and feel free to refresh…

December 2014 provided me with my first full-month year-over-year sales statistics. It also provided me with many reasons to curse the literary Gods, hurl my copy of The Elements of Style to the ground in a huff, and vow never again to grace the InterWebs with my self-published genius. Then I took a deep breath, relaxed, and began the second paragraph of this blog post.

First, the gory year-over-year details:

December 2013 — A World Gone Gray: 18

December 2014 — A World Gone Gray: 1

For the math-challenged (myself included) that comes out to an 18:1 ratio. In the negative. Generally, one hopes to see improvement over time as far as sales of ebooks is concerned. Clearly, in this case, no. The possible reasons for this drop-off in sales are myriad. Maybe it was the favorable conditions provided by Amazon at the time of my first book launch becoming less-than-favorable over time. Exposure seemed to be at an apex when I released AWGG (Thanksgiving-ish, 2013), and I managed double-figures in monthly sales through March. Sales gradually dropped off after that, month-over-month, due in some part, I imagine, to the advent of Kindle Unlimited. Frankly, I have no idea what’s driving indie ebook sales at Amazon these days. All I can confirm is that the overall sales for AWGG over the 13.3 months of its existence resemble the right side of a bell curve.

Clearly, changes need to be made. The slipshod gameplan I had in place prior to my foray into this self-publishing thing has proved less-than-successful. In lieu of firing my offensive coordinator, head coach, and general manager, I’ve decided to…